The Former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital Project

Home Updates History Cemetery Patients Haunted? Pictures

FAQ Events Contact Links Guestbook Thanks About

The Visit of Rick Winchell

"For years that certain air of mystery dominated the local public opinion as we drove by 3131 Lakeshore Boulevard [West] and saw the cold looking "green monster" which separated the "nuts" from the rest of the world..."

- Rick Winchell

Rick Winchell was the editor of the Etobicoke Gazette, who was asked by the authorities of the hospital to "asses" the public image of the institution (therefore, it is safe to assume that it was not entirely positive). Winchell visited the hospital on several occasions, where he was introduced to all the therapeutic programs and he even spent one night in a close male ward. This project was set up by Grant Dobson, Lakeshore's public relations director. Winchell later admitted in his report for the Etobicoke Gazette that it was the various misconceptions of the hospital and its patients that prompted him to see how it is to be a patient for one day.

If the above quote is true, it reflects the ignorance of the local community - the hospital was viewed as basically a seclusion, where the "lunatics" were kept under lock and key from the judging "local public eye."

Prior to his "admission" Winchell had a brief meeting with the staff during which they confessed that they were "apprehensive" about the entire experiment and this is how he introduced the account of his experiences at Lakeshore's ward:

"I checked into the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital about 2:30 Thursday afternoon. For days I nervously thought up different stories about my background so I wouldn't blow my cover."

But upon arrival he must have been relieved to discover that the patients did not question his background or for what reason he was in the hospital; he was accepted as "just another patient," by others.

Winchell stated that he was a "patient" on the ward A:2, but unfortunately, he made no direct reference to the building, where the said ward was located.

His report provides a number of interesting insides into the operation of the hospital. Firstly, each patient had an assigned locker, where they store their belongings, and a bed. The wards consisted of dormitories and the number of beds in every one was twenty-five, so the patients hardly had any privacy. There was also a television lounge for patients in the common room. The television set, as Winchell stated, was the only form of any contact with the world outside of hospital, therefore, it is highly possible that many patients must have felt isolated.

Winchell also met several patients. One of them was Richard, who "although not normal to many people's standards, turned out to be one of the friendliest guys" that he had ever met. When at 4:30 pm Winchell was standing in the line for his supper consisting of stew and dumplings, a young patient named Brian introduced himself and asked to sit with him at the table and afterwards he offered Winchell to show him around the hospital grounds. During the meal, Winchell found out that meals were a time of "eating, not talking, since most patients worked very hard throughout the day." Once again, the reporter does not specify where the patients worked, although it was probably at the Occupational and/or Industrial Therapy.

Brian was kind enough to guide Winchell throughout the grounds of Lakeshore, where they met Richard, and together they went to a baseball practice and to try for a hospital team called the Lakeshore Lakers.

After the practice was over, they first headed to the Moorehouse, but finding it locked, they went to the Assembly Hall to watch a movie. They grew bored quickly, so they headed back to the ward A:2, where they played some card games with other patients. There, he met another patient named Richard, not the same person that he met earlier. After the game, most of the patients went to bed around 9:30 pm, while Winchell went to talk to the two night staffers on duty. One, who had worked there since the 1950's recounted the time, when there was still no medication and the patients were threatened with electroshock (but it wasn't the only "treatment" that they were afraid of). He also said that once the grounds of the hospital were "mammoth" and the asylum was strictly self-sufficient. There were farm animals, fruit trees, and other resources that were responsible for putting the meals on the patients' tables. Both attendants also informed Winchell that some days were "a constant fight" with the patients and coming home with injuries was "a common occurrence." After the conversation, Winchell headed back to his dormitory. During the night, he could barely sleep, thinking about the life he was leading on the outside - his friends, job, and his wife, only to suddenly realize where he was. Winchell left the hospital in the early afternoon of the following day.

Although Winchell does not necessarily provided us with the less pleasant aspects of the hospital, he tried to dismiss some of the stereotypes associated with mental health patients, but he wasn't very critical of the conditions in the hospital and he didn't gain the insight of the patients by openly asking them about their thoughts on hospital and its staff.